The drop in nickel copper and cobalt production was due mainly to strikes in Greater Sudbury, Port Colborne and Voisey's Bay, N. L., the company said.

Vale bought Sudbury-based Inco Ltd. for $19 billion in October 2006.

Its Canadian operations now include six nickel mines, a mill, a smelter and a refinery in Sudbury; a refinery in Port Colborne; a nickel-cobalt-copper mine in Voisey's Bay; and three nickel mines, a mill, a smelter and a refinery in Thompson, Man.

More than 3,000 mine and mill workers in Sudbury, as well as employees of a smaller Vale Inco operation in Port Colborne, have been on strike since mid-July. Workers in Voisey's Bay struck Aug. 1.

When the strike began, Vale chief executive Roger Agnelli said Sudbury is the company's highest-cost operation and isn't sustainable at current price levels.